The Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection occurs in and kills millions of people every year worldwide. The virus enters CD+ cells of the host immune system and replicates, thereby destroying the cells and weakening the immune system. This leaves the host vulnerable to many infections. It is crucial to understand the mechanism of the HIV infection in order to develop effective antiretroviral therapies. Unfortunately, resistance against HIV drugs is common and cross-resistance among the same class of drugs is also common. Measures such as pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis help to combat the spread of infection.

00:00
Let's start off with
the Anti-HIV agents.
00:04
Anti-HIV agents are divided
up into several categories.
00:08
The fusion inhibitors.
00:10
The reverse
transcriptase inhibitors.
00:12
The strand transfer inhibitors.
00:14
Protease inhibitors
and the CCR5 Antagonist.
00:18
Now the reverse transcriptase
inhibitors are dividedinto the Neucloside Reverse
Transcriptase Inhibitorsand the Non-Neucloside Reverse
Transcriptase Inhibitors.
00:30
Let's start off with
the fusion inhibitors.
00:32
Now remember that fusion
inhibitors are blockingthe viral attachment and entry
portion of the cells cycleor the viral cycle.
00:41
There are many out there
on the market.
00:44
They are exceedingly expensive.
00:46
Some of them run up
to $25, 000 a year.
00:50
Because of the very high price
they are little used in clinicalpractice but they
are quite effective.
00:56
They disrupt the molecular
machinery at the final stageof fusion with a target cell.
01:01
And this prevents the uneffected
cells from being infectedgoing forward.
01:06
The adverse events are really
mostly limited to injectionsite reactions.
01:11
And some patients will also
complain of a coughor maybe a shortness
of breath.
01:15
Or sometimes joint pains.
01:17
And we think that this
an immune-mediated issue.

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